Not Another Pokemon Journey
by dyraleharper
Summary: *Ch 3 up* please R&R. About a 14-year old girl named Kari, not a journey like in the game (hence the title). Further summary would give away the story, so I'm shutting up now.
1. Caught in a storm

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Pokemon. I own all characters in this chapter (note the "this chapter" part..heh) EXCEPT for Professor Tracy, who is property of Nintendo, or whoever (everything's all owned by somebody else, these days). If I've left anything out, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Just use your brain.  
  
A/N: I know there may not be a lot of Pokemon stuff at the moment or romance but it will all come in very soon (well, not the romance, that's for later ^_^)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~Not Another Pokemon Journey~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Fourteen-year-old Kari Sako-Kei slammed her locker shut and re-adjusted her grip on her schoolbooks for the hundredth time before turning to her best friend, Anya Lory, also fourteen.  
  
"I couldn't believe how long that paper on the influence of Magikarp on eighteenth-century painters took to write. Magikarp! Do these teachers realize that we also have a social life? Geez, you'd think the only thing better to do for them was grade papers all day!"  
  
Kari laughed at her friend. "You're probably right, but Mrs. Jordan's married and has kids. So she must have some other life rather than being a boring stiff," she added, and the two dissolved in laughter.  
  
"No kidding." Anya looked at her watch. She tried motioning down the hallway with her arms while holding her books. "Come on, we're going to be late to class!" Then she dropped them and they scattered across the floor. "Dammit! There should be some kind of child labor law against the number of books we're supposed to carry!"  
  
Kari laughed and bent down to help her friend pick up her books.  
  
"Shoot, now we're definitely late," Anya said.  
  
"Oh well, at least we'll be together."  
  
"Ha, more reason to give us detention."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"But she didn't even READ the stupid thing! How could she just look at it and give it a freaking C? This is-"  
  
Kari had to cut her friend off before she said anything worse. The traffic jam of people emptying out of classes before filtering outside to wait for buses clogged the hallways now.  
  
"Shhhh, Anya, people are starting to stare at you-" she began.  
  
"WHO CARES?" Kari clapped a hand over her friend's mouth.  
  
"Anya!"  
  
"Mmmph, gerrof Kari." Kari let go. "I'm calm now. I just don't know how she can barely read the first line and grade it so harshly."  
  
Kari nodded. "I know, I'm sorry."  
  
"What are you complaining about? You got a freaking A! How you got that, I have NO idea..."  
  
Kari grinned but lowered her head.  
  
"No, I'm really happy for you, Kari. You deserved it."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"No problem."  
  
They stepped outside into a partly cloudy day. In the distance, blackened clouds slowly rolled in over the oblivious students of Pallet High.  
  
"See you later, Kari."  
  
"See you Anya, call me when you get home, okay?"  
  
"Sure. You're so lucky; you just have to walk home!"  
  
Suddenly there was a small but audible rumble from the sky. The schoolyard almost became silent as every student listened. Kari felt something fall on her forehead. Within a few seconds the pavement became speckled with fresh spring rain. Kari playfully shoved Anya onto the bus.  
  
"You just HAD to say that!" she said as the doors to the bus closed.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Kari stood there for a while watching the few buses leave (there were only about four). Her shoulder-blade length dark brown hair was drenched with water by this point, and her face was dripping with water that got into her calm gray eyes, and slipped off her small nose, and curved its way down her slightly red cheeks. At this point she wished dearly that she had brought her poncho with her like her mother said she should have.  
  
She cut through the woods on a small dirt path (now turned to mud) to try and evade the rain as much as possible. It was coming down harder now, and Kari's sneakers were also water-logged. She was only wearing two thin layers on her upper-body, and t-shirt and a threadbare sweatshirt, so naturally she was beginning to get very cold. There was still almost a mile left to her house, and she new it would take a long time at the rate she was going.  
  
A few minutes later Kari was shivering and her head was bent down over the road. She seemed to be going nowhere and yet felt like she had walked over fifty miles at the same time. The rain was deliberately pushing her back, impeding her movement, keeping her from reaching her destination.  
  
She forgot all about how cold she was when she suddenly ran head- first into something really hard.  
  
"OW! What the-" Kari mumbled, rubbing her head. She had run into a large wrought-iron gate that guarded the entrance to a huge white mansion on a high, steep hill. Kari's face brightened.  
  
"Professor!"  
  
She heaved herself against the tall wrought-iron gate. It creaked and squealed but moved fractionally until Kari was able to squeeze herself (which wasn't too much, she was pretty thin) and her engorged backpack through. She broke into a run through the driving rain up the steep pavement driveway all the way to the front door of the mansion. She pressed a series of buttons on a gray keypad to the right of the door. Kari heard a familiar buzzing noise and then tried the door. Suddenly the buzzing noise turned off just before she reached the door handle, and the door wouldn't budge.  
  
Kari groaned. "Tracy, you know it's me!" she yelled. A few seconds passed. She banged on the door. "You jerk! Open the door!" After a few more seconds Kari heard the buzzing noise again and yanked the door open.  
  
Inside it was pitch black. Kari couldn't see anything, so she just groaned.  
  
"You are not funny, Tracy," she said.  
  
She expected the lights to fly on after a few seconds and Tracy to pop out from behind a huge bookshelf or something, but the lights remained off for a couple of minutes.  
  
"Tracy?" Kari asked, becoming a little afraid. What if there were robbers there, or a rabid Pokemon, or...or...  
  
The more time that passed and the more Kari thought about it, the more she convinced herself that there was something there other than Professor Tracy. She inched along the wall and felt something stab into her back. It was a light switch.  
  
Just then she heard a squeaking noise to her left, like someone stepping on a loose floorboard, and it was only two feet away from her. Kari took action. She laid one hand on the light switch. In the same moment, she flicked the light on and swung her heavy backpack in the direction of the noise. 


	2. Professor Tracy

Disclaimer: I don't own any Pokemon characters/themes/etc, only the original characters/themes/ideas/etc, (see Chapter One). As for the title, it has no bearing or similarities with "Not Another Teen Movie", so you don't have to worry (?) about that... Any grammatical errors are my computer's fault (hahaha) To my reviewers: Thank you! You wrote such nice messages ^_^  
  
~*~*~Previous Chapter~*~*~  
  
Just then she heard a squeaking noise to her left, like someone stepping on a loose floorboard, and it was only two feet away from her. Kari took action. She laid one hand on the light switch. In the same moment, she flicked the light on and swung her heavy backpack in the direction of the noise.  
  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~A Different Kind of Pokemon Journey Chapter 2~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"AAAHHH!" came a loud cry from Kari's left as she felt her backpack connect with the unknown "thing".  
  
The lights came on and she looked down at Professor Tracy lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. His arm twitched.  
  
"Ow..."  
  
Kari threw her bag aside and sank to the ground next to Tracy.  
  
"Oh my God!! I'm so sorry! You weren't coming and I thought there were wild Pokemon and- and- and- and-"  
  
"It's okay," Tracy said, beginning to recover. "I was trying to scare you, but I guess it kind of worked..."  
  
"More like backfired... but I thought you were in trouble!"  
  
The twenty-seven-year-old professor grinned at Kari. He stretched his hand toward her and she helped him up off the ground.  
  
"Gee, Tracy, have you gained some weight over the past week?"  
  
"I dare you to repeat that."  
  
Kari laughed, then suddenly the cold and dampness seized her momentarily and a violent shiver racked her body.  
  
"God, Kari, you're soaked!"  
  
"Yeah, it's raining cats and dogs out there. I needed to get out of the rain for a while."  
  
"You know you're always welcome, Kari. Do you want a change of clothes?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and looking Kari up and down. Her clothes clung to her body and her hair was in complete disarray.  
  
"You sure I would fit into them?" Kari asked, grinning. Tracy wasn't overweight, but he would always complain that he was and Kari made fun of him for it.  
  
"I think you're small enough," Tracy said just as calmly. When she wasn't careful, he would throw the joke back at her.  
  
"Yeah, I think so...hey, wait a sec...TRACY."  
  
Tracy laughed ((A/N: yeah, and if you haven't figured it out by now, Tracy is a guy, if you remember from the TV series)).  
  
The two were conversing in a small anteroom of a large mansion attached to an even larger laboratory. This was just the same lab that Professor Oak used only it had been added on to over the course of a few years to accommodate the growing number of Pokemon and new developments, etc. Professor Oak had since died and passed the lab on to Professor Tracy, who he took on as his assistant. (I think that was somewhere around the end of the second season, or something like that.)  
  
As for Tracy and Kari's relationship, they weren't related to each other in any way, but were instead the best of friends. Kari would describe Tracy as her older brother, and Tracy would describe Kari as his younger sister. They picked on each other like siblings, but they were never angry with each other. Kari was always at the lab with Tracy, watching and even assisting him with experiments and research and such. She knew it inside and out, almost as well as Tracy himself, and was familiar with all the equipment and the Pokemon that were kept there.  
  
Kari loved Pokemon, and everything about them. She had had the option of beginning a Pokemon journey long ago, but never took it. In a way she felt obligated to her mother, Tasuya who had diabetes. In a way she was afraid of the journey, and to tell the reason, we're gonna have to go back in time a bit.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Kari was the illegitimate daughter of Tasuya Sako and Kumai Kei. Tasuya was living in the quiet town of Pallet (where the current setting is now, by the way) when a handsome young Pokemon trainer-almost Master blew into town. Tasuya was eighteen and Kumai was nineteen. They met, fell in love, had a passionate affair, you know the details. Then Kumai left for the southern seas and left a pregnant Tasuya behind. Two days before her nineteenth birthday, Tasuya gave birth to Kari Sako-Kei. The next day, Tasuya received word that her beloved Kumai had been lost in the southern seas the four months before. They had been searching for his body ever since and finally concluded that he was dead.  
  
Tasuya had to grow up that day, and she most certainly did. She vowed to never go near the sea again and to never let her daughter go on a Pokemon journey until they were fourteen, but deep in her heart she knew that she would never let Kari go when that time came. She did her best though, to protect Kari from the sea, but that didn't stop her from joining the school swim team.  
  
Then, thirteen years later, Tasuya discovered she had a severe case of diabetes, and Kari knew she couldn't leave her mother no matter how much she wanted to.  
  
And with that, we'll turn back to the present, just three weeks before Pallet Town School District' summer vacation I might add... (::someone shouts "FORESHADOWING")  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Kari emerged from a spare bedroom in pants that were at least six inches too long, but not that big around the waist, and a sweater that said "ORANGE LEAGUE" in big orange letters across the front, the O actually looking like an orange. She raised her arms and turned around in front of Tracy.  
  
"It works," Kari said.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Follow me, Kari, there's something I want to show you," Tracy said mysteriously.  
  
Tracy guided Kari through an endless variety of passages and stairways and hallways that wound their way through the mansion and the lab before ultimately coming to two large double-doors.  
  
"Here we are," Tracy said finally.  
  
Kari knew where they were from pure familiarity with the lab.  
  
"We're at the pool," she said.  
  
Tracy nodded. "I've been entrusted with a new Pokemon. I'm sure you'll be ecstatic to know which kind of Pokemon it is."  
  
Kari raised an eyebrow and Tracy opened the door.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~End of Chapter 2~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
I had to cut off there because the chapter was starting to get long... (I love making cliffhangers! ^_^) R&R please, but go easy on the flames! Any inconsistencies are purely accidental. If there are any questions, please post them in you review and I'll be sure to answer them in the next chapter. 


	3. Tracy's Lapras

I don't own Pokemon. I do like it, but I don't want to own it because so many other people I know would shoot me if I did (and most certainly NOT out of jealousy..., you KNOW who you are ^_^) Any grammar errors are really my fault, but we'll just blame the computer since it doesn't know any better. Anything in double parentheses are Author Comments or Notes  
  
~*~*~Previous Chapter~*~*~  
  
Tracy nodded. "I've been entrusted with a new Pokemon. I'm sure you'll be ecstatic to know which kind of Pokemon it is."  
  
Kari raised an eyebrow and Tracy opened the door.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~Chapter 3: Tracy's Lapras ((Aren't I so creative with the chapter titles? ......don't answer that))~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Through the door was a large room with and incredibly high ceiling. It was hot and humid in the room, the cause being a large, Olympic-sized pool (and there were those who would argue it was larger than that) in the middle of the room. Three of the four walls of the room were made out of window- glass. Outside the rain threw itself violently against the windows.  
  
If you looked as hard as you could through the rain, you could make out the outline of another, larger pool outside, and if you looked even harder, you could see that it was actually connected to the pool inside. But that's not what Kari was really interested in- she'd been swimming in the pool hundreds of times. She was interested in the Pokemon sitting quietly in the center.  
  
"A Lapras!" Kari burst out. "They're my favorite kind of Pokemon!" she cried. The Lapras let out a great whine, like a dog whimpering, but much shriller, but it only tossed its head back and forth.  
  
"This Lapras has been separated from its school," Tracy said solemnly.  
  
"That seems to happen a lot. Poor thing."  
  
Tracy bowed his head sadly. "Yes, it's very sad. She will be here for a few weeks to recuperate. By then her herd, or another herd, will be close enough for her to find."  
  
"Why don't you just keep her here?" Kari asked.  
  
"Good question. Too many Lapras are separated from their schools every year. It's great for trainers, but not all Lapras adapt well to a...er...I don't like to use the word 'captivity'..." Tracy trailed off.  
  
"Maybe 'domesticated'?" Kari suggested.  
  
Tracy nodded. "Yes, that works. So anyway, not many Lapras adapt well to being domesticated...well, that's still not quite the right word..."  
  
"I know what you mean."  
  
Tracy looked relieved. "Good. So we're examining the behaviors of the Laprases we capture. Depending on their nature, we'll release them in a different area."  
  
"Oh, like, if they would do well in captivity, you release them in a place with high trainer population-density?"  
  
Tracy looked surprised. "That's exactly what we do! This Lapras was found east of Cinnibar, but its characteristics, the length of its horn, the shape of its flippers, even its color say that she's from the Orange Islands. Now where are the Orange Islands, Kari?"  
  
Kari groaned. "Tracy, I'm in 9th grade, I know where the stupid Islands are, geez."  
  
"Teeelll, me, come on..." Tracy said.  
  
Kari began in an exaggerated monotone voice. "The Orange Islands are a group of over fifty islands ((I think that number is right)) east of Kanto. The Islands are spread over a great distance. They vary greatly in size and fame. Some are famous for Pokemon Gyms, or beautiful flowers, or even pink Pokemon."  
  
Tracy laughed at that.  
  
Kari started to continue, but Tracy stopped her.  
  
"Okay, okay, that's enough, very good."  
  
Kari scowled, but Tracy laughed harder.  
  
Kari made a small growling noise and walked briskly toward the pool. The sight of the Lapras softened her until she smiled. Tracy followed her. The Lapras swam slowly back and forth in the water.  
  
"So what do you know already?" Kari asked. She knelt down at the edge of the pool at leaned out slightly. She clicked her tongue a few times, catching the Lapras' attention.  
  
"About the Lapras? Oh, not too much. We only guess about where she's from. She's got a fairly sweet disposition." The Lapras swam toward the two.  
  
"How old is she?"  
  
"About two, very young."  
  
"Wow, that is! Poor thing," Kari said again. The Lapras was only a few feet away from the edge of the pool now. Kari shifted herself so that she was sitting on the edge of the pool. She was wearing flip-flops, which she took off and put her feet into the water, letting the water come up to her ankles. The Lapras inched closer.  
  
Kari tilted her head to the side.  
  
"You're kinda cute!" she said.  
  
"Oh, sure, but she can have an irrepressible-"  
  
"Kinda big, though. Haven't been eating too much, have you?" Kari asked, jokingly.  
  
The Lapras raised her head and looked Kari straight in the eye.  
  
Then she squirted a stream of water right into Kari's face.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~End Chapter Three~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Phew, I thought that was getting a little lengthy...I dunno, I won't know unless you R&R!! ::hint hint nudge nudge wink wink:: 


	4. A Name for the Lapras

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, etc, etc I would like to thank the thesaurus of my computer, you are wonderful (or "magnificent" or "superb" or "brilliant") I would also like to destroy my computer for encountering an error while I was writing this chapter so I had to write the last half over again as well as the disclaimer. Okay, on to the story, although I hope you had sense enough to skip the above section...  
  
~*~*~Previous Chapter~*~*~  
  
Tracy began to talk "Oh, sure, but she can have an irrepressible-"  
  
The Lapras raised her head and looked Kari straight in the eye.  
  
Then she squirted a stream of water right into Kari's face.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~Chapter 4~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Kari fell over, coughing and spluttering.  
  
"Attitude," Tracy said, finishing his previous statement. "She can have an irrepressible attitude."  
  
Kari stood up and grimly wiped her face, then wrung her hair out. The Lapras raised her head and let out a sharp whine. Kari couldn't tell whether it was a victory cry or a laugh. As hard as she tried to be mad, she just had to laugh at the incident.  
  
Tracy had disappeared and now had come back with a towel. He handed it to Kari.  
  
"Heh, thanks Tracy."  
  
"I told you so," was all Tracy said.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, you were right," Kari said, her voice muffled under the towel.  
  
"Here, lemme take the towel, you might need it again. I'll put it on this chair right here."  
  
"Ha, thanks."  
  
Kari once again knelt at the edge of the pool. The Lapras came over.  
  
"You really are cute though. I was just kidding earlier. No hard feelings?" The Lapras squeaked happily. Kari smiled. "Good! Hey, wait a minute; you don't have a name, do you? Tracy, did you give her a name?"  
  
"That's part of the reason I wanted you here. She needs a name." Tracy grinned.  
  
"That's going to be tough." Kari grinned. "Are you telling me that you, with your creative mind, couldn't come up with a good name for this Lapras?"  
  
"I'm going to take that as a compliment, but no, I thought you should. Lapras are your favorite Pokemon, you're always talking about them and you know everything about them." Tracy scratched his head. "Sometimes I think you know more about them than I do. So I thought you should name her."  
  
"I guess that's a good enough reason, but this Lapras needs a really good name. It's obviously really special." The Lapras chirped happily at that, and Kari grinned. "I don't think I am capable of assuming that kind of responsibility." She nobly. The Lapras dipped her head in the water and brought it up again, scattering tiny droplets everywhere.  
  
"Sure you are. Come on, think!"  
  
Kari sat down Indian-style on the edge of the pool. She watched the Lapras and the Lapras, in turn, watched her. Kari stretched her neck forward slightly, and the Lapras did the same, only stretching hers much further because it was much longer. Tracy laughed. Kari looked up and her brow furrowed.  
  
"I'm concentrating, Tracy, you have to be quiet," Kari said sharply, but Tracy knew she was just kidding. "The Lapras is a girl, right?" she asked.  
  
"Right. Why?"  
  
"I was thinking of the name Lilly, but it sounds too feminine."  
  
"It works well with her species, Lilly the Lapras."  
  
"Alliteration," Kari said suddenly.  
  
"I'm sure your English teacher would be pleased," Tracy said smugly.  
  
"Maybe I can get extra credit."  
  
"I think Lilly is a good name, because it does conflict with her nature, in a way."  
  
"I guess. It is starting to stick."  
  
"Sot there you go! Lilly it is."  
  
Kari smiled at the Lapras, now named "Lilly". "Yeah, Lilly."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Oh, crap, Tracy, what time is it?" Kari asked, leaping up from the ground.  
  
Tracy looked at his watch.  
  
"Five-thirty."  
  
"Already? You have got to be kidding! Mom is going to kill me."  
  
Tracy looked outside. The rain had slackened off to a mere drizzle. "Well, at least it's not raining as much, or I'd keep you here and have you call Miss Sako. I hope you come back soon." Lilly squeaked. "And so does Lilly," he added. "I swear, she understands so much more than a normal Pokemon does."  
  
"Duh, Tracy, they are like, the smartest Pokemon in the world or something, besides Mewtwo, but he's genetically altered. Honestly, I don't see how they count him, although he is a pretty cool Pokemon. He can talk! Oh, well, so can Team Rocket's Meowth, but that's besides the point..."  
  
Tracy opened and closed his hand in front of the Lapras and whispered, "Blah, blah, blah,"  
  
"TRACY."  
  
Tracy raised both eyebrows and looked up, grinning.  
  
"You're going to make me even later than I already am! I know where my bag is, it's right next to the doorway." Kari grinned at remembering when she first walked through the door. "I'll see you later. Bye, Lilly!" Lilly chirped a goodbye.  
  
The large entrance door creaked and slammed as Kari left.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~End of Chapter 4~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Personally, I think that was kind of short. Please R&R!! I encourage constructive criticism, but please be kind! The story WILL start to pick up in the next chapter (unless you think that it has already, which, in that case, please go on thinking so ^_^), which will come very soon, as I thought about including a lot of it here but thought better of it. 


End file.
